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Chickens in Urban Agriculture
Urban chicken farming is the practice of keeping chickens in an urban environment. Typically chickens are raised to cultivate, process and distribute food to local areas, or to keep as pets. Urban chicken farming is increasingly becoming a more popular practice. This may because of the current local food movement. Chicken farming is an easy practice to produce food - eggs. Concern for rising food costs may be a second reason that urban chicken farming is growing. Growing your own eggs in your backyard is a cheap solution. A third reason is the concern over food disease and food safety. Backyard chickens offer a safer solution for many. There are many animals that are raised on urban farms maintaining a sustainable practice, a theme containing urban agriculture3. Benefits Urban chicken farming in the Midwest has many benefits, ultimately allowing a progressive community attitude toward an urban agriculture movement. Backyard chicken farming also allows for enriching educational opportunities. There were 27 coops registered for the 2013 8th annual Twin Cities Chicken Coop Tour1. Volunteers opened up their yards to share their chicken-keeping experiences with the public. This practice promotes healthy people and healthy soil. Eggs provide a healthy food source to chicken owners, while chicken waste provides manure for garden fertilizer4. Being a homegrown local food source, it decreases human effects on the environment by consumption of foods grown in our local area. Egg production Roosters are not needed to get an egg. A rooster is only needed if it is wished to obtain fertilized eggs. Typically hens lay eggs every 1-3 days, tending to lay less in cold and dark seasons and more in sunny and warm environments2. With age, the amount of eggs a hen lays tends to decrease. Within the first 1-4 years of their life hens are the most productive2. On average hens tend to live around eight years old, but have been to live up to 20. Concerns A few concerns come with the idea of backyard chickens. Neighbor complaints may be a conflict. Many have the lingering idea that keeping chickens can be noisy – this usually comes with having roosters. City ordinances should be checked beforehand if roosters are permittable. Another concern for the sake of the chickens is wild life. Dogs, foxes, coyotes, birds of prey and raccoons all have been known to go after unprotected chickens. Especially at night, it is advised that chickens are in safe coops. Ordinances Some cities allow backyard chickens while other do not. Chicken ordinances vary by area. There can be restrictions on the number of chickens a home is allowed to have, as well as restrictions on the placement and size of the chicken coops. Ordinances for specific areas can be found online or from local animal control2. References 1. Twin Cities Coop Tour 2013 https://sites.google.com/site/twincitiescooptour/ 2. "Urban Chickens – Backyard Chicken Keeping." Urban Chickens Backyard Chicken Keeping. KT LaBadie and Mark Scully, 2012. 3. LaBadie, KT. Residential Urban Chicken Farming: An Examination of 25 Cities. University of New Mexico, May 2008. 4. Walker, Jason. "The ABCs of Raising Urban Chickens." The Heavy Table. Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine, Sept. 2010. http://heavytable.com/the-abcs-of-raising-urban-chickens/